Impact of Beauty Standards on Women's Self-perception

The dominant ideological belief of the North American beauty standard is predominantly associated with being fair-skinned, thin, and youthful (Johnston, 2016, p. 304). The hegemonic body norms found in society have created diet culture. Diet culture, to me, is a society that places excessive importance on thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue. This means an individual can spend their entire life believing that they are irreparably broken because they do not coincide with the impossibly thin “ideal.” Diet culture also promotes weight loss, which influences individuals to spend a lot of time, energy, and money trying to shrink their bodies. I argue that diet culture in North America is inherently flawed and damaging to women. I suggest that the valorization of thin bodies is a socially constructed mass that is neither “natural” nor universal (Johnston, 2016, p. 305). The sociological theory that I will use to frame my essay is symbolic interactionism, as it captures the essence of the social impact of weight loss products.

The Influence of Beauty Norms on Women's Self-Image

The focus of this essay will be to describe and illustrate the ways in which society has created the stigma that surrounds obesity, as well as exploiting the characteristic for monetary gain. Capitalists use the weight loss industry and diet culture to exploit and profit from obesity. To understand the social significance of weight loss products, we must first explore how body ideals have been created by society and the effects these standards have specifically on females' social sense of self. Furthermore, the internalization of these standards affects women's mental health, leading to issues such as low self-esteem and eating disorders. Lastly, I will conclude with how capitalism is the main benefactor of the weight loss industry through the concept of body work.

Symbolic Interactionism and Self-Perception

Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical microsociological perspective that emphasizes how our social world is created by relationships and interactions in our daily lives; these interactions then construct meaning and self-identity (Johnston, 2016, p. 278). The concept of the looking-glass self, put forward by Charles Cooley, insinuates that the concept of self is an imagined sense of ourselves based on how we believe others perceive us. This theory suggests that the actions and expressions of how others interact with us are indicators or reflections of how we see ourselves (Johnston, 2016, p. 278). There is a body of evidence in everyday interactions that shows the effects of fat shaming, which goes far beyond rude remarks, stares, and looks that fat people hear, as well as the hurtful comments strangers make about their bodies and the “funny” memes and jokes featuring overweight people. Fat prejudice differs from other forms in ways that make it especially difficult to overcome (Kolata, 2016). These interactions that overweight people face have a huge impact on the way that they see themselves. This stigmatization causes fat people to loathe, blame, and shame themselves, as well as carry the same feelings towards other obese people (Kolata, 2016).

The Role of Body Work

Body work is a concept in sociology that refers to the labor that people perform on themselves or pay for in order to manipulate their bodies to improve their physical appearance (Johnston, 2016, p. 306). Obese people are constantly in a situation where they feel that being overweight is a fundamental flaw for which they need to find a solution. However, they do not have to look for options for long. This is because there are an overwhelming number of weight loss products that promise to fix that “flaw” that is so unacceptable to possess. Regardless of weight, age, or class, we are constantly exposed to a tremendous number of weight loss products such as diet pills, waist trainers, diet plans, prepared diet foods, surgeries, fat-burning teas, and much more. Sociologist Mike Featherstone transcribes that “within consumer culture, the inner body and the outer body become conjoined: the prime purpose of the maintenance of the inner body becomes the enhancement of the appearance of the outer body” (Johnston, 2016, p. 306). Since thinness has been equated with health by society, it is interesting that a number of these products actually have negative effects on health. For example, the waist trainer has a number of health risks such as skin irritation, breathing issues, and numbness, yet it is still commonly used because it is advertised by a number of influencers. The most outrageous part is that most of these weight loss products do not yield lasting results. This cycle perpetuates consumer dependency and dissatisfaction, further enriching the industry.

Historical Context and Social Construction

The social construction of beauty ideals is not only for creating categories to interpret the world; these categories are deeply shaped by social inequalities and work to advance the interests of dominant groups (Johnston, 2016, p. 308). These ideologies have been present in North American society dating back to the early 1900s. The book The Body Project by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1997) compares the diaries of two girls 100 years apart. The first entry was of a girl in 1892 who described her self-improvement goals, which were intangible as they focused on her character, work ethic, morals, and actions. The girl whose diary was written over 100 years later had a substantially different set of values and goals. This girl’s idea of self-improvement was based on physical appearance and tangible goods such as losing weight, getting a new haircut, buying new clothes, and makeup (Johnston, 2016, p. 307). This historical comparison reveals a shift in the ideals of self-improvement from internal advancement of one’s character to an external betterment of one’s physical appearance.

Intersectionality and Social Implications

Our physical and social location have a strong impact on how we experience the effects of North American beauty standards. Intersectionality draws attention to how multiple social aspects come together to shape social advantages and disadvantages. Women disproportionately feel the effects of diet culture, as beauty is closely associated with femininity. Racial inequality also perpetuates inequality in beauty because whiteness is also an appreciated beauty standard. This intensifies the disadvantages black overweight women experience. Hegemonic body norms and the valuation of thinness form the thoughts of individuals as well as influence actions (Brock, 2020). The constant dissatisfaction overweight people have in relation to how they look permits the mechanisms of consumer capitalism. The culture of bodily lack, which can be defined by the shortfalls in one’s appearance, motivates body work and consumption.

Conclusion

This now has an influence over individual agency and is the driving factor for the production and demand for weight loss products. The societal obsession with thinness and beauty continues to fuel an industry that profits from insecurity and self-doubt, leaving individuals in a perpetual cycle of consumption and dissatisfaction.

References

• Brock, C. (2020). Looking Good: The Impact of Beauty Standards.
• Johnston, J. (2016). The Sociology of Body and Beauty. New York: Sage Publications.
• Kolata, G. (2016). The Problem with Fat Shaming. The New York Times.
• Brumberg, J. J. (1997). The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House.